Chapter 121: Successful Pill Sales

The grand hall of the Treasury Pavilion was bathed in the warm, ambient light of dozen crystal lanterns, casting soft golden reflections across the polished marble floor. The atmosphere inside was quiet, almost reverent, but beneath the surface ran a current of fierce, competitive tension.

This was not a public auction where common merchants and curious onlookers could crowd the aisles. Attendance today was strictly restricted to a handpicked circle of Crimson Vale’s most powerful figures. Each guest sat separated by heavy silk privacy sheets, sipping fine tea while silently sizing up the competition.

At the center of the raised podium stood Lin Laifu. His usual frugal, overly humble merchant demeanor was completely replaced by the sharp, authoritative posture of a master trader overseeing a monumental event.

Beside him, seated in a reserved alcove furnished with plush velvet cushions and carved rosewood tables, was Su Rong. Draped in her elegant crimson robes, she rested her chin lightly against her palm, lazily swirling a porcelain teacup.

Though her expression appeared calm and indifferent, her dark eyes carefully scanned the attendees, noting every subtle shift in posture among the high-status guests.

’Lu Feng truly missed out on quite the show,’ Su Rong thought to herself, a faint, amused smile touching her lips. ’Though, knowing his quiet nature, he likely would have found all this posturing tedious.’

"Welcome, esteemed guests," Lin Laifu spoke, his voice carrying clearly across the quiet hall through a faint infusion of spiritual energy. "I shall not waste your valuable time with lengthy pleasantries. You all know why you were invited here today. Crimson Vale has seen no shortage of fine goods over the years, but what I offer you this afternoon is a rarity that comes along perhaps once in a decade."

A low murmur rippled through the hall behind the silk screens.

Lin Laifu gestured toward a covered pedestal behind him. A young servant stepped forward, carefully lifting a sheet of black velvet to reveal three sleek, jade-carved vials sitting atop a silk-lined tray.

"Presenting the main highlight of today’s private session," Lin Laifu declared, his eyes gleaming with professional pride. "Three pills of High-Grade Blood Purifying Pills. Refined through an extraordinary, lost purification method, these pills possess purity levels exceeding seventy-five percent, with very little pill toxins."

The moment the words left his mouth, several high-ranking elders stood up from their seats, their calm facades instantly shattering.

"Seventy-five percent purity?!" an elderly voice boomed from behind one of the silk screens, belonging to Elder Gao of the Ironclad Clan. "Manager Lin, do not jest! Even the senior alchemists within the regional sects can barely produce sixty percent purity without leaving behind heavy impurities!"

"Elder Gao speaks the truth," another refined voice joined in. "To claim seventy-five percent purity with almost no lingering toxin is absurd unless a master personally passed through our city!"

Lin Laifu smiled smoothly, having anticipated their skepticism. Without a word, he unstoppered the cork of the central jade vial.

An ethereal, sweet floral aroma instantly erupted from the bottle, wafting across the grand hall like a physical wave. The dense, concentrated essence of pure spiritual energy washed over the attendees, instantly clearing their minds and causing the spiritual energy in their meridians to circulate faster merely from inhaling the scent.

The hall fell dead silent. The lingering doubt in the air vanished completely, replaced by an overwhelming, ravenous greed.

"The proof is in the fragrance," Lin Laifu said softly, re-stoppers the vial before the precious energy could dissipate. "We shall begin the bidding for the first vial containing three pills. Starting price... Two thousand gold coins."

"Five thousand!" Elder Gao instantly roared, stepping out from behind his screen, his eyes bloodshot with determination. "My ironclad young master is currently suffering from a blood poisoning! This vial belongs to us!"

"Seven thousand!" a merchant lord countered immediately without hesitation.

"Nine thousand!"

The bidding escalated at a terrifying pace, far exceeding the standard market value of conventional cultivation pills. Prices soared past ten thousand, then fifteen thousand, as clan elders shouted over one another, discarding all sense of aristocratic decorum in their desperate bid to secure a commodity that could guarantee a flawless breakthrough for their heirs.

In her private alcove, Su Rong watched the chaotic bidding war unfold with a subtle raise of her eyebrows. She took a quiet sip of her jasmine tea, her sharp mind quickly analyzing the sheer scale of the event.

Two thousand starting price, and it has already reached fifteen thousand for a single vial...’ Su Rong pondered, her gaze drifting to the jade bottles on the tray. ’A supplier capable of producing pills of this caliber anonymously is a force that can single-handedly alter the power balance of Crimson Vale.’

She thought back to her conversation with Lu Feng earlier that morning. He had politely turned down her invitation, claiming he had personal matters to attend to regarding his estate and cultivation. Yet, an odd, persistent intuition nagged at the edge of her thoughts. Lu Feng had been entirely too confident that she would find something extraordinary at this sale.

’Could it be a coincidence?’ Su Rong mused, her eyes narrowing slightly. ’No... Lu Feng is quiet, but he is never careless with his words. Still, to suggest that a young man who just settled into the city is connected to a grandmaster alchemist seems far-fetched. I will need to observe him more closely.’

"Twenty thousand gold coins! Going once... going twice..." Lin Laifu’s voice echoed over the frantic shouts, bringing his brass mallet down with force.

Bang!

"Sold to Patriarch Chen!"

By the time the sixth and final vial was auctioned off, the total sum accumulated from the pill sales reached a staggering figure that left even Lin Laifu’s hands trembling slightly as he recorded the tallies. The room gradually emptied as victorious buyers quickly departed under heavy guard, eager to secure their newly acquired treasures, while disappointed bidders lingered, muttering among themselves about the identity of the mysterious alchemist.

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long crimson shadows over the rooftops of Crimson Vale, the news of the extraordinary pill auction spread through the city’s undercurrents like wildfire.

Deep within the subterranean quarters of the city’s southern district, inside a dimly lit hall reeking of stale wine and iron, a heavy wooden table was split in two by a single, furious fist.

"A seventy-five percent purity batch?!" a rough, raspy voice spat into the shadows. The speaker was a tall, scar-faced man dressed in dark leather armor—White Horse, a high-ranking lieutenant of the Iron Fang Gang.

Standing before him was a hooded scout, bowing low with a trembling frame. "Yes, Lieutenant! Lin Laifu hosted a private sale this afternoon. The pills fetched over one hundred and fifty thousand gold coins in total! The entire upper district is talking about it!"

White Horse’s eyes flared with intense, ruthless greed. A transaction of that magnitude meant an absurd amount of wealth had just entered the city—and more importantly, it meant an elite supplier was active within their territory without paying tribute to the Iron Fang Gang.

"Did you find out who supplied Lin Laifu with those pills?" White Horse demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous snarl.

"Manager Lin kept the supplier’s identity completely classified," the scout reported hurriedly. "However... Our eyes near the merchant district reported that before the auction was announced, Lin Laifu met privately with two individuals. One was Mistress Su Rong of the Crimson Pavilion... and the other was the young newcomer who recently bought the estate we have our eyes on. I believe his name is Lu Feng."

White Horse slammed his hand onto the armrest of his chair, his brow furrowing deep with suspicion. "Lu Feng? First, three of our scouts go missing near his perimeter, then our tail loses him near the Crimson Pavilion, and now his name appears right alongside Lin Laifu before a massive pill drop?"

"Lieutenant, do you think Lu Feng is the supplier?" the scout ventured cautiously.

"Unlikely," White Horse grunted, shaking his head. "A brat his age doesn’t have the cultivation base or the pill fire to refine those kinds of pills. But he is undoubtedly connected to whoever is providing them. Either he is acting as an intermediary for a hidden master, or his estate is being used as a staging ground."

A cruel, twisted smile stretched across White Horse’s scarred face. He leaned forward, his yellowed teeth glinting in the torchlight.

"Three of our men disappeared near his estate, and now this massive pool of wealth appears," White Horse rasped, his voice dripping with malice. "We can no longer afford to play wait-and-see with this boy. Gather a squad of our best stealth operatives. I want that estate monitored night and day. If Lu Feng so much as breathes near a furnace or meets a masked stranger, I want to know about it immediately."

"And if he resists, Lieutenant?"

"Then we bleed him until he talks," White Horse sneered. "Crimson Vale belongs to us the Iron Fang Gang. No one moves that much wealth in our city without giving us our cut."

While the undercurrents of the city stirred into a frenzy, total tranquility reigned over the northern estate.

Night had fully fallen over the property. The cold moonlight bathed the stone tiles of the private courtyard in a silvery glow. With the two bound captives safely relocated to the cold, underground storage cellar beneath the eastern guard house, the western training pavilion was completely quiet.

Inside the spacious training hall, the air was pristine and still.

Lu Feng sat cross-legged atop a raised stone platform at the center of the room as he prepared for the journey he was about to embark on.